Desal plant dodges bullet

Four Huntington Beach City Council members voted against putting a proposed desalination plant's future in jeopardy when they opposed calls to ask the California Coastal Commission to refuse to authorize the plant during the May 6 council meeting.

The 4-3 vote to amend the resolution and, instead, to allow individual council members to send letters rather than a more binding collective action, was endorsed by Mayor Pro Tem Matthew Harper and Councilmen Joe Carchio, Jim Katapodis and Dave Sullivan.

The proposed letter drew criticism from Poseidon Resources Inc., builders of the Huntington Beach plant and the Carlsbad Desalination Project, and local businesses who felt reversing course on a project approved by two previous councils would send a bad signal to the business community.

“Approving this letter and these heavy-handed tactics we are using as a council sends a really terrible message to our business community and investors who invest in companies, not only Poseidon, but any other company,” Mr. Carchio said. “Sending this is sending the message we are no longer open for business.”

We applaud the four members of the Huntington Beach council for striving to remain a business-friendly environment while reducing our dependency on a dwindling share of imported water by growing the much-needed local water supply.

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